DISCLAIMER: Once again, I must say that I own nothing but Cas and OIR. Zim, Dib and the rest of the IZ cast and technology belong to greatness that is Jhonen Vasquez. Go ahead and read chapter six now!


CHAPTER SIX-- Skool


The next morning, I woke up and immediately reactivated the disguise-hologram. It was too uncomfortable to rest in, so I had turned it off.

"Can't I please go to skool with you?" OIR begged again while we prepared some food.

"No, you can't. You have to stay here." I replied, the third time that morning.

We ate some Oobel, an Irken delicacy. It was nice to still have some Irken food with me, but it probably wouldn't last as long as I was on Earth.

I could only hope that Earth food was edible.

"Can't I please go!" OIR wailed as I got ready to leave.

"For the last time, no." I said again. The front door opened as I approached, and I was on my way to skool.

As the skool building came closer and closer, I became more and more nervous. If this skool was anything like the academies on Irk, I was doomed.

The large, red building finally stood in front of me. A large playground, with play things that I was not at all familiar with, surrounding the entire facility. Many children ran and frolicked around.

"Excuse me," I distracted a child and he stopped. "Can you tell me where the office of this... building... is?"

He stared at me. "You have green skin...."

I looked down at myself. "So. Can you help me, or not?"

"I don't help aliens." He grinned a little. "I'm not going to help you take over Earth. I will defend this planet to my death!"

He frolicked away. I didn't like that kid. He seemed to have already caught onto my secret. I could only hope the rest of the children weren't like him.


By the time class started, I was being led to my new classroom. Hopefully, it was the same class Zim attended. That would help me keep in closer contact with him.

"Who's that?" A teacher in black with large glasses growled as I entered the classroom. The office lady whispered to the teacher, then left.

"Looks like we have yet another addition to this hopeless class." The teacher sighed. "Her name is Cas. Now, Cas," She turned away from the class to face me, "I'm Ms. Bitters. I want you to stay quiet. You will sit at that table in back, next to Willy. Make any introductions now, and remain quiet for the rest of class."

The class contained many, many human children. There were all disgusting, especially they kid I would have to sit next to. Willy was covered in piles of dirt.

Much to my relief, Zim was in the class. He had been sitting at his desk with his head resting on his hand, but his elbow had slipped off the edge of the desk. I addressed my introduction to him.

"I'm a normal child, just like Zim here." I announced. "In fact, I'm from the same place Zim is from. I know Zim. I'll take my seat now."

No one was paying attention, except a kid in the front row. He was the kid from the playground, and his mouth was hanging open.

"Don't you guys see it?" The kid yelled, pointing at me. "There's another alien here!"

I glared at him, along with the rest of the class. They didn't appear to believe him, they didn't sound like they did either.

"That's all you ever talk about, Dib. I can't believe you call every new kid in the class an alien." One kid said.

"Yeah, I think you're the alien!" Another laughed.

There was only one thing left to do; I stuck out my tongue at the human, Dib, and took my seat.



Lunch was a horrible time of day. I picked up my tray from surly lunch ladies who filled it with filth. I couldn't believe that humans could digest such horrible food!

The lunchroom had several tables in rows. Each table had about six seats, but many of the chairs had been shoved under other tables to fit everyone's friends.

Zim sat alone at a table. Dib was watching him from the other side of the room, sitting alone with a purple-haired girl. I didn't know whether I should try to sit with Zim, or if he preferred to 'eat' alone.

I took my chances with him. Keeping my head high and walking quickly, I made my way through the crowd of children to the table.

"Hi, Zim." My tray dropped quickly to the table, and the peas scattered slightly. I sat down in the chair next to him and waited for his response.

"Uh, hi, um, Cas." He stuttered a little as he talked, which I found both annoying and disturbing.

"Your not going to talk like that the whole time, are you?" I asked.

"What? No, don't be silly." Zim had sank low in his chair, but now he straightened up again. "I don't normally talk like that."

"That's nice to know." I muttered. "Do you know why I'm here."

"To make a mockery of Zim!" He scared me by jumping onto the table and sticking his fist in my face.

"That's not it at all." I said quickly. "The Tallest just sent me here to...uh, assist you with preparing this planet for conquest."

"They dare make a mockery of me?!" Zim sounded just as angry and insulted. "Do they not believe I can take care of this planet by myself? These humans are easily under my control without your help!"

"Sure, Zim." Dib was walking behind us, carrying his tray. "You've really taken care of the human race." He snorted and continued walking.

The peas tasted horrible. I had only tried them out of curiosity, but that didn't last long. I quickly shoved the tray away from me and continued talking to Zim.

"I didn't come here by choice; I would have gone to another planet on the other side of the galaxy. Unfortunately, the Tallest sent me here. I am not one to disobey my commanding leaders."

"Now I'm not good enough for you? There is no one as good as ZIM!" This guy was sure easy to insult.

"That's not what I meant." Smoothing over this would not be easy. "I just meant that I didn't want to intrude on your invaded territory."

"Okay then. If you're here to help, I guess I can't decline the offer of the Tallest." He climbed off the table and sat back down in his chair. "Tell me where you live, and I'll visit you tonight."

"Why are you going to visit?" I couldn't see any reason in him doing that.

"To check on the status of your equipment, of course." Zim got up to dump his tray, then left the lunchroom.

A few minutes later, I realized why I really didn't want him to come over. OIR would be an embarrassment to me. What would I do about my robot? The only way to keep her from giving Zim a bad impression would be to keep her busy with order after order.

Dumping my own tray, I followed Zim out onto the playground from lunch recess.